dc.description.abstract | Fair administrative action is a core principle in public administration and a guarantee of
fairness in decision making by persons whom power has been bestowed to exercise on
behalf of others. It is also a human right guaranteed to every person by the Constitution
of Kenya. This study sought to establish how the Commission on Administrative Justice
(CAJ), also known as the office of the Ombudsman promotes the right to fair
administrative action. The objectives of the study were threefold, namely, to examine
ways in which CAJ promotes the right to fair administrative action in Kenya; to assess
the extent to which the convergence of KNCHR, CAJ and NGEC promote human rights
in Kenya, and to analyse the challenges and opportunities for CAJ in promoting the right
to fair administrative action in Kenya. The study was conducted at the CAJ head office in
Nairobi. Qualitative research design focusing on both primary and secondary data was
applied. Primary data was collected by means of in-depth interviews administered to 30
respondents. Intensity sampling was used to select 30 cases on administrative justice that
had been handled and concluded by CAJ between 2013 and 2018. An unstructured
interview guide was utilised to obtain data from the respondents. Secondary data was
collected by conducting document review of CAJ reports as well as other documents
including legal instruments, books, articles, journals, publications and Acts of Parliament.
The study found that CAJ has significant facilitative powers to enable it process
complaints on violations of the right to fair administrative action and provide remedies to
aggrieved persons. The study also found out that decisions of CAJ are enforceable as
public entities are bound to comply with the decisions of CAJ unless they challenge the
same in court, and if the facilitative powers are utilized exhaustively, they could deter
violations of the right to fair administrative action. The study established that the three
human rights institutions established in Kenya, namely KNCHR, CAJ and NGEC had not
undertaken sufficient awareness creation for the public to be able to effectively utilize
their services for human rights protection. The study further established that CAJ had
more opportunities for enhancing its work in promoting the right to fair administrative
action through the effective systems it has established and competent staff. The study
recommends that CAJ should invest more in investigations when addressing complaints
of violations of the right to fair administrative action. The study also recommends more
targeted awareness initiatives by the human rights institutions to ensure optimum
utilization of their services by the public. | en_US |